Dark Matter

As glamorous as a musical and as quick-witted as a stand-up comedy act; this is a good description of the past work of the New Zealand diva Kate McIntosh. She has already appeared on the Kaaitheater programme, with her powerful solo All Natural and the surprising group work Hair from the Throat. In her new project, Dark Matter, she is herself onstage once again. And again there is that penchant for glamour and that odd humour, this time enhanced with bursts of popular science and similar philosophical reflections on nature, the world and the universe.

La McIntosh appears in a glitter dress and is aided by two devoted but clumsy assistants. They throw themselves with abandon into all sorts of tests and experiments. It doesn’t matter if you can’t follow the pseudo-scientific reasoning, the performers’ body language makes a lot of things clear. You are made an accessory to the enthusiasm for successful or failed demonstrations, to the magic and the drama.

Dark Matter is a humorous show that occasionally arouses some unease too. Kate McIntosh: ‘How is anyone to imagine a thing like ten dimensions? Or a black hole? It makes for excitement and curiosity, but also confusion and anxiety, because you can’t integrate this information into your daily life in any way at all.’

Kate McIntosh tackles these questions not only through language and rational processes. She sees thought as movement and therefore as very physical. Her main interest is the gap between what can be thought and what can be physically displayed or experienced.